Reformed Government of the Republic of China

The Reformed Government of the Republic of China was a Chinese provisional government protected by Japan that existed from 1938 to 1940 during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The regime had little authority or popular support, lasting only two years before it was merged with the Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China under Wang Jingwei.HistoryAfter the retreat of Kuomintang forces from Nanjing in 1938 from their defeat in the Battle of Nanjing, Japanese Imperial General Headquarters authorized the creation of a collaborationist regime to give the semblance of at least nominal local control over Japanese-occupied central and south China. Northern China was already under a separate administration, the Provisional Government of the Republic of China, from December 1937. The Japanese Central China Area Army drafted plans that month to set up its own puppet government in the Lower Yangtze region. Several documents were made that laid out the details of providing it with financial support as well as the economic and political goals for forming the regime. The documents also acknowledged the eventual merger of the Provisional Government with the one in Central China. The task they focused on was recruiting political and military leaders to head the government.